28 However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days. Your dream and the visions in your mind as you lay on your bed are as follows.
29 As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind while on your bed about what would happen in the future, and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what is to come.
30 But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me because of any wisdom that I have more than anyone else, but so that the interpretation may be made known to the king and that you may understand the thoughts of your heart.
31 You, O king, were watching, and behold, a great image! This image, immense and of dazzling brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.
32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze.
33 Its legs were made of iron, and its feet were part iron and part clay.
34 While you were watching, a stone was cut out, not by human hands. It struck the statue on its iron and clay feet and broke them into pieces.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all crushed together and became like chaff from a summer threshing floor. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 This was the dream, and we will now tell the king its interpretation.
37 You, O king, are the king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory.
38 He has placed into your hands control over every person, animal, and bird that dwells under the heavens. Wherever they live, He has given you sovereignty over them all. You are the head of gold.
39 After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours; then a third kingdom, made of bronze, which will rule over the whole earth.
40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, for iron crushes and shatters everything. And just as iron breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all the others.
41 But as you saw the feet and toes made partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom. However, it will have some of the strength of iron, as you saw the iron mixed with the clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.
43 As you saw the iron mixed with clay, the people will mix but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
44 In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will stand forever.